Extermination
by hayhaymellark
Summary: When Hunters return to Beacon Hills and threaten his pack, the Hale pack must defend their town and their loved ones from complete extermination. Derek/Kira :) T for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! This is my first published Teen Wolf story and I'm just going to preface it by saying sorry for any OOCness and such and such.  
**

**Some notes: It's essentially a different timeline of the universe, it'll be pretty different from the canon storyline.**

**Ages:**

**Derek and Laura(26-twins)**

**Scott and almost everyone his age in the TW universe(20)**

**Liam and Malia(18)**

**Boyd and Isaac(6); yeah, I know**

**Erica(4); yeah, I KNOW**

**Everyone else's age is pretty irrelevant.**

**Derek/Kira fic because I think they'd be adorable.**

**Hale fire was NINE years ago(YES, I KNOW)**

**My updates will be fairly irregular because I'm away all summer but that's why I have 8(almost 9) pre-written chapters for you!**

**I don't own Teen Wolf.**

"Brother, what do we do now?" Derek turned from his place on the porch of the new Hale house to look at his sister who'd asked him the question.

Argent and his daughter had left only thirty minutes ago and Derek's head was still reeling, his mind unsure of whether or not to trust the supposed former hunter or not, but knowing that, either way, he and his pack were in danger.

"_Derek!" The Alpha looked up from his conversation with his baby sister. Rushing in through the door came his first bitten beta, Scott, and Scott's human best friend, Stiles. "Derek there's someone in the preserve demanding to speak to you." Scott blurted quickly._

_Stiles, winded, continues. "Yeah(breath), a man and a girl our age."_

"_She's hot."_

"_Not the point, Scottie."_

_Derek, alarmed, stood up and strode to the door. "Did he say who he was?"_

"_No, just that you'd want to talk to him." Scott supplied._

_Derek, followed by the two boys and his now concerned sister, Cora, marched out into the preserve. Immediately, he's hit by a familiar scent. Not quite the same, but something close._

_When he reached the place where the boys had been running, he knew why the scent had been so familiar. Derek growled. "Chris."_

_There, standing in the tree line was Chris Argent and a young woman-his daughter, presumably. "Derek."_

"_What do you want? Why have you come back?" Derek's teeth were gritted, fists clenching._

"_Allison and I have come to warn you and your pack." The Alpha's eyes briefly flitted to Chris's daughter, Allison, whose eyes were less hardened than her father's and held a nervousness._

"_Warn us of what?"_

"_My father," Derek's eyes narrowed, "and my sister." At the mention of the woman, a loud growl tore out of Derek's chest, his eyes flashing. "Derek, they're coming. And they're going to kill you all."_

_Allison cut in and addressed Derek. "Gerard's become manic. He's convinced himself and the rest of his people that all supernatural creatures are a plague and that they have to exterminate all of you."_

_Cora's eyes widened and she subtly gripped Stiles' hand. He squeezed it once. Cora attempted to school her expression, but the realization of who they were talking about shook her to her core. Now 20, Cora had only been 11 years old when the fire set by Kate Argent took her family, her brother and sister had been 17. To this day, Cora still wakes in a cold sweat, calling for her parents, Derek and Laura rushing into the room. Her big sister would brush out her hair and wipe her face and her big brother would hold her, tuck her back into bed as if she were still that 11 year old._

_Scott and Stiles had never met the Argent family, but they had heard the stories. After the fire, the whole band of them had cleared out, satisfied that the main threat had been neutralized, leaving behind only three broken children and a comatose man._

_Cora, finding her voice, spoke out. "Why should we trust you? Forgive me for finding a conflict of interest."_

_Chris's eyes grew sad for a moment as the young woman spoke. He knew her to be Cora Hale. She was the same age as his Allison. After finding out about what his sister and father had done all those years ago, Chris often thought about the innocent children who had been left behind in the ruins of their life._

"_Do you hear any lies in our heartbeats?" And Derek hadn't heard any. He had been listening and both Chris and Allison's heartbeats had been steady. "Allison and I left when everyone started going crazy. The hunt's heading here. I don't know when or how many but they're coming."_

Derek, now looking at Laura, replied to his twin sister. "I don't know."

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That night, Derek called a pack meeting. Some members of the pack like Liam, and Jackson lived on the Hale property along with the three siblings. Scott, Lydia, and Stiles lived with their parents, but spent a lot of time at the property as a pack.

"We're not strong enough." It was the first thing that came out of Derek's mouth that night. "What Argent told us today, if it's true, we don't stand a chance as we are."

The group of young adults(and teenager in Liam's case) looked up at Derek, their expressions solemn.

"The numbers that they have, we'd just be overwhelmed." Derek paused and looked at his twin sister, Laura. "We don't know how many people in this town are supernatural, we've never known. Even our mother hadn't known. The Nemeton attracts them here, but most are smart enough to know how to hide themselves."

"We need to increase our numbers." Laura said. "We're strong, but we need at least two more members in order to even stand a chance against the Argents, but the more, the better."

Derek looked down and sighed. "It isn't safe in Beacon Hills anymore. The safest place that we can be is here. As a pack."

He looked up at the pack. While, maybe, they weren't too happy about the move, it was clear that they knew it was necessary.

"Bring your families, too." The Alpha added. He said nothing, but could see the relief blossom in their eyes, their worries eased slightly. "Anyone connected to us will become a target. We have enough rooms here to house everyone. If needed, we can always start building secondary houses on the property."

"Derek," it was Lydia who spoke, "how are we going to fight this? We can't...kill all those people."

"No," he looked down, "no we can't kill them all. But I'm not going to lie to you: there will likely be a time in the near future when you will have to kill." Derek swallowed. "I never wanted this, not for any of you. But they're shooting to kill and I'm not willing to lose any of you. If it comes down to you or them...choose you." A somber resignation rested in the eyes of his pack, but Derek knew they understood. "Now, I'm not telling you to go out recruiting any random people into the pack, but we need to build. Survival is our priority."

With that, the meeting ended and the group broke; Scott, Stiles, and Lydia going to call their parents and tell them the situation.

Half an hour later, a car pulled up in front of the Hale house. Laura hit a button to open up the gate that fenced in the property and then went outside with Derek, Scott, Lydia, and Stiles to meet the parents.

Immediately after climbing out of the car, Melissa McCall grabbed her son and pulled him into a fierce hug, before turning to Derek and doing the same. Derek returned her hug. She pulled away and took a deep breath before speaking. "Is it safe here?"

A pause. "As safe as it can be."

With the help of three werewolves and the other two kids, Natalie, Melissa, and Noah's belongings were quickly moved from the car into the house. Stiles had already set one of his father's bags down in a room and, when Scott went to bring his mother's bag to another room, she stopped him. "Oh, wait, Honey." Scott paused and Laura caught the grimace that flashed across Ms. McCall's face. "Uh, I meant to tell you later this week, but you got busy and there wasn't time-" She cut herself off, closing her eyes and taking a breath. "You can put my bag in Noah's room."

Scott's jaw dropped and Stiles' head popped around the corner of the doorway. "What?"

Noah sighed deeply and ran a hand over his face. "Boys...why don't you come with us and we'll explain." Laura caught Derek's eye across the room and was surprised to see him biting his bottom lip, shoulders trembling slightly in an effort not to laugh. Scott and Stiles, who was making some noise choking/gasping/squeaking noise hybrid, were both yanked into the aforementioned bedroom, the door slamming shut behind them.

The room was silent for a moment. A throat cleared. "Carry on, everyone." A very amused looking Alpha said.


	2. Chapter 2

A week later and there was no sign of hunters yet. Chris and Allison were around town, of course, but they'd made no noise so far. Derek ordered everyone to carry on as normally as possible, to soak up their lives while they could. So they did.

Almost everyday, at precisely 7:30 a.m., Derek woke to the sound of Liam's body hitting the floor in the room above his as Scott dragged him out of bed. Liam was the youngest in the pack at 18, and a senior in high school. Scott would get up and drive Liam to school before heading to class. By this time, Melissa, Natalie, and Stilinski were already gone and at work for the day. Slowly, each of the college-aged students would emerge from their rooms in various stages of sleep-deprived. Almost all of them attended the local community college.

People would mill in and out of the house throughout the day-eating lunch, napping between classes. Even Derek and Laura. The Hale family didn't need the money by any means, but none of them were the type to sit idly by all day. Derek was, surprisingly enough, a deputy with the police department, a position he and Noah found convenient when a supernatural case found its way into the Sheriff's office. Laura worked at the florists down in the mall.

By 8 p.m., everyone, with the occasional exception of Melissa when she was working night shift, was back at the big house. They ate dinner together and talked, hung out like a real family. It was nice, everyone being in one house. But the storm was coming.

The betas(minus Laura and plus Lydia and Stiles) were all huddled around the dining room table, talking in low, serious tones when Derek arrived home later. He knew that he was the only other one back. Melissa and Noah didn't come back for another hour, Natalie was spending time with her cousin a couple towns over, and Laura had to close up the shop today.

When he entered, Cora's voice immediately called to him. "D! We got a problem." Sensing the urgency, Derek dropped his bag and toed off his shoes quickly, removing his jacket as he walked to the kitchen area to join them. All eyes were on him. Cora spoke. "The hunters are close."

Derek stood up straighter and tried to calm his heart. "How do you know?"

Lydia cut in. "My mother called me saying that a huge group had come into the town she's in. She sent me this picture." Lydia tilted her phone screen toward him. The picture showed a large group of people unloading boxes into an apartment complex. Just barely, Derek glimpsed the side of Kate's face at the edge of the photo. Lydia turned off her phone. "My mom is on her way back now."

Derek pushed away from the table and shifted into action mode. "Call the rest of the pack in. Scott, if you can, get a hold of Deaton, tell him what's going on so he knows. Everyone stays in the house, no one leaves at night from now on."

The next half an hour were a flurry of activity as the remaining pack members(yes, this now included the adults, he supposed, but they didn't add strength because they were unable to fight with the the exception of the Sheriff) returned to the big house. Just after 8:39, the gates to the Hale property closed behind Natalie's car.

A quick round up of everyone in the living room was shot, but to the point. They needed to grow their pack. It was go time.

And go time it was. As if the universe had heard Derek, the pack gained its newest member in the strangest, most bewildering way possible two days later.

Liam had called Derek from school. The older pack members had made sure to sync up their college schedules enough that they all had both Monday and Friday with no classes so they were all lounging at home.

"Liam? What's up?" Derek stood up from his seat in the office. Derek cared about all of his betas equally(maybe a little more for his sisters but that's different), but Liam was the youngest and it was in Derek's instincts to be more protective over him.

"There's some kind of were-thing here, Derek. We all got called off the Lacrosse field during P.E. cuz a coyote wandered towards us, but I smelled it. It wasn't all coyote." Liam informed him from the other side of the phone.

Later that night, after all after-school activities were done, Derek took Liam, Cora, and Laura back to the school area. They pulled up and parked in front of the edge of the woods, figuring that it was where the coyote had gone since Liam said it left not long after it came.

The small group wandered into the forest on high alert, searching for any signs of the animal...person whatever. Liam suddenly stopped them. "Wait, I can smell it. It's the same from earlier." Liam began following the scent and eventually tracked it to a small cave.

Derek, Cora, and Laura looked at each other. They could smell it too, the supernatural scent that lingered around nearly all of them. Derek frowned, there was something different about this scent, though. Familiar.

Derek and Cora went into the cave, Liam and Laura standing as look-outs outside the mouth of the cave. It was tiny, not much in there, but they did notice a doll lying in the dirt where the were clearly slept.

"Der." Came Laura's voice softly from outside. When he and his baby sister re-emerged, the coyote stood there, about 20 feet away. It was stock still, regarding the intruders with caution. It's sharp eyes followed Derek's every movement in a way that was tellingly human. With resolve, Derek walked slowly forward, trying his best not to startle the were.

"Hello. My name is Derek Hale, I'm the Alpha of the Beacon Hills pack." Derek didn't know what he was expecting. Maybe for the person to change back and greet them? Couldn't hurt to hope that it would happen that easily.

Instead the coyote jerked back and trembled violently, its head lolling to the side before it collapsed unconscious on the floor. Derek startled and rushed to kneel beside it. The three betas looked around frantically to see who had injured the creature but found no one. Instead, they heard Derek's gasp.

Before his eyes, the coyote's fur began to ripple and recede until it bared human flesh. The animal's form stretched out until a young woman laid before them, wholly naked. She couldn't have been older than Liam.

Derek didn't know why but her scent became clearer to him in that moment. She smelled like...like family. A glance at his sisters told him they noticed it too.

The young woman laid there, unmoving. If it weren't for her heartbeat, Derek would think her dead. The alpha removed his sweatshirt and laid it across her midsection before kneeling to scoop her up.

"What are we going to do?" Cora inquired.

""We're gonna see if she'll join the pack."

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"Uh, Derek?" Scott said as his Alpha trudged through the front door, carrying a mostly naked, unconscious girl in his arms. "Who's your new friend?"

"I don't know." His Alpha supplied shortly. "Melissa, could you come with me?" The older woman got up without question from her seat next to Noah on the couch and followed the young man into an unoccupied guest room.

Derek laid her down on the bed, the sweatshirt still covering her. Cora came in behind him to help Melissa, Derek then bowing out of the room and thanking them both.

When he came back down the stairs, the whole pack was in the living room, waiting for him.

"So," Stiles started, "she was the coyote?"

"Yup."

"I didn't know there were other...were-things. Just wolves." The human looked annoyingly excited by the prospect.

Derek rolled his eyes. "Werewolves, werecoyotes, werejaguars, kitsunes, wendigos...you don't know the half of it." Stiles listened intently, jaw opened stupidly wide, brain racing with the possibilities.

"Are you going to ask her to join?" It was Jackson, who leaned against the wall next to the kitchen door, arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't know." Derek looked at the ceiling taking a deep breath. "She doesn't have a pack. She was living alone in this little cave. But...she's feral."

"Feral?" Liam asked.

It was Laura who answered this time. "It's when a werewolf, or coyote in her case, loses control of their animal side and it takes over. That girl hasn't changed out of her coyote form in...a long time. We don't know what she's like or how she thinks."

"There's something else." Derek said quietly. He looked to Laura. "The girl's related to us."

Shock, Every jaw in the room was hanging open. "How is that possible?" It was Noah. "I thought that your whole family…"

"Was gone?" Derek asked bitterly. "Us too. We don't know how but...she smells like family."

Scott nodded. "I noticed it too when you walked in, but I thought I was just imagining it."

"Once we know how she-" A loud growl and a shriek cut Derek off and he rushes upstairs to see what happened. The girl, who was now dressed in some of Cora's sweats and a t-shirt, is pressed into the corner, eyes wide and slightly fearful, distrusting. Cora stood in front of Melissa, a scratch running down her arm.

Derek approached slowly, just as he had done in the forest earlier that night. He pulled his power to the forefront and allowed his eyes to glow red for a moment. In natural response, the girl's eyes flashed icy blue, her heartbeat slowing slowly. She inhaled through her nose and frowned. Derek knew she smelled the similarities between him and herself.

"Hello." He said as calmly as possible. "I'm sorry that we scared you, but you shifted in the forest and we didn't know what to do. Can you tell me what your name is?"

She hesitated, before responding in a scratchy unused voice. "Malia." It was as if she had trouble forming the name, the vowels sticking to the back of her throat.

"My name is Derek, Malia. That's Melissa and that's my sister, Cora." Derek kept his voice soft.

"Pack." A pause. "You...you're my family?" She looked at him, eyes confused.

"We think so, yeah." Derek smiled a little weakly. "I promise, we're not going to hurt you. I know that you were alone. Malia...there are hunters coming to kill us. You too. If...if you join us we can help keep you safe. Keep everyone safe."

"You want me t-to be pack?"

"Only if you want to, Malia. You're already family." Malia smiles a little at that, but it looked a little stilted, as if she couldn't quite remember how.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next couple days, the pack was slowly introduced to Malia who was still slightly skittish. They learned that she had been in coyote form for close to 11 years. When asked why, she responded simply.

"I lost control one night. My mom crashed the car. I guess she didn't know her daughter could do that." Everyone had gone quiet. Malia said it so nonchalantly, but Liam caught the flash on pain in her eyes and offered her a sad smile.

She was 18, the same age as Liam. When Derek and Noah went into the office the next day, they looked up her case. When Malia was 7 years old, she had been in a car wreck with her whole family. The other three were dead at the scene, but Malia was never found. The case went cold after a year. In his searching, Derek also discovered something shocking. Malia's parentage.

In the case file were adoption papers and her birth certificate. _Father: Peter J. Hale. _The three Hale siblings had been in shock. Peter had a daughter? Malia had been shocked as well, having never even known she was adopted.

That was why they were here. In the hospital. Derek had been unsure about bringing her out of the house so soon and also about this being the first time she met her father, but Malia had insisted. She needed to see her father.

They all just stood in the room. Laura and Cora hung back toward the doorway, their eyes misted over with sadness and Derek leaned against the wall next to the bed. Malia stood at the foot.

She stared at the burnt man who they said was her father. And she knew it too. She could smell the scent of safety and family under the charred flesh. Malia sat down in the chair next to where Derek stood as the tightness in her chest grew for a man she did not know.

Derek laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, but it was Cora whose voice caught her attention. "Uncle Peter saved my life. When...when the fire had started, we were in a room in the back. He picked me up and ran into the living room but the fire was everywhere. He just told me to curl up and I did. Next thing I knew I was being thrown out the window." She smiled down at her uncle and touched his hand.

Malia, watching her cousin's actions, reached out her hand slowly until it was an inch from her father's. She hesitated, but then reached down and brushed the back of her father's hand with her fingertips.

The reaction was immediate. Peter's body jolted and the man let out a sharp gasp, his heart monitor beeping rapidly. All four Hale kids stood up in shock as Peter's eyes shot open. His sat straight up in bed, head whipping from side to side.

The burns that had marred the side of his face and body sank back into the skin below, making it look flawless once again. "Wh-where…" Peter swallowed, his throat unbearably dry. "Laura?"

Laura's eyes were side and wet. She reached out and grasped Peter's hand. "Yeah, Uncle Peter." She let out a wet laugh. "It's me."

He was like a gaping fish. "I-I didn't even recognize you. Any of you." He looked around. "Derek, Cora."

At the sound of her name, Cora let out a sob and dove to give her uncle a hug. Derek, with a watery smile of his own, sat on the edge of Peter's bed, one hand on his shin, the other rubbing Cora's back.

Malia simply stared at the scene before her, unsure if she should leave the room. But, before she could, Peter's eyes locked hers. Shock, awe, and….a little pain colored the man's face. "You...you're-you're my Malia."

Malia's lower lip quivered, but she forced it to stop. "Yes."

A slow smile, teary smile spread across his face. "You're so beautiful."

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The doctors were shocked at Peter's recovery, they called it miraculous. And...well yeah, it was. After running tons of test and perplexingly declaring that nothing was wrong, he was discharged from the hospital.

When they walked into the pack house that night, everyone simply stared. Stiles was the one to break the silence. "I feel like we should be surprised." He paused as if trying to search himself for a response. "….nope nothing." And it was true. All of them, at this point, had become annoyingly apathetic when it came to the impossible suddenly being possible.

"Stiles is right." Scott spoke, sitting on the couch and leaning his elbows on his knees. "But, uh, how did this…." Scott gestured at Peter, "...happen?"

Peter smiled fondly and shot his eyes to Malia. "The bond between parent and child is a powerful thing." Peter's smile dropped when Malia looked away from him.

Derek, catching the exchange between parent and child, cleared his throat. "Well, if we're all here, we should just use this time for a short meeting." Everyone shuffled all the way into the living room and found seats. "We're more powerful now, maybe powerful enough to take on the Argents."

"Wait, what?"

"Later, Peter."

Derek continued. "But it won't be easy. When I say we stand a chance, I mean that we may just barely stay alive. More pack members wouldn't be a bad thing. We need to continue with extensive training."

Everyone could sense that he wasn't done.

"I contacted Chris Argent."

"What the shit?" Laura. "¿Estas loco? Sabes lo peligroso que es eso. Argent y su hija podrían estar trabajando con ellos.?" _Are you crazy? You know how dangerous that is. Argent and his daughter could be working with them._

Derek stood up. "Lo sé, Laura, pero no creo que estén mintiendo y si nos pueden dar alguna información, necesitamos tomarla." _I know, Laura, but I don't think they're lying and if they can give us any information, we need to take it._

Cora joined their argument. "¡Cálmese! Laura, Derek tiene razón. No me gusta, pero nos estamos quedando sin opciones." _Calm down! Laura, Derek is right. I don't like it, but we're running out of options._

The rest of the pack just rolled their eyes. The Hales always had their private conversations publicly, just in a way that nobody else could understand. Melissa could only glean small snippets of the conversation.

Laura just looked at them for a moment. "Me asusta, hermano." _It scares me, brother._

Derek gave her a meaningful look. "Yo también." _Me too._

Stiles cleared his throat. "Not that that wasn't super beautiful or anything, but can the rest of us please know what just happened?"

The Alpha werewolf rolled his eyes. "Chris Argent and his daughter will be here this week. Chris and Allison have valuable information about their family and we need all the help we can get."

"That's risky, D." Jackson mentioned.

Derek nodded. "I know, but the hunters are on their way and conflict is coming. Their insight is just too integral to pass up." He paused and glanced at his family members. "We've lost a lot to these people. I'm not willing to lose anymore, no matter what I have to do."

With that, the meeting broke up. Jackson, Laura, and the Sheriff were on dinner duty tonight on the chore rotation, so they shuffled into the kitchen to begin preparing food; Cora and Melissa walked together to the laundry room to finish up their chores; and Liam, Malia, Stiles, Lydia, and Natalie headed to the den to do homework. Lydia and Stiles had always helped Liam with homework, but, now with Malia who had stopped her education at the second grade, they had enlisted the help of Natalie. Malia was a quick learner. Even though her book smarts were a little weak, she likely had better survival skills than all of them combined.

Derek and Peter, seeing that everyone was occupied, made their way into Derek's study.

Peter took a seat in a large armchair in the corner and Derek sat in the one facing his desk. Peter spoke. "Derek...we're not strong enough."

He was silent for a moment as he stared down at the books on his desk. While he had maintained a collected exterior in the presence of the pack, truthfully, Derek was exhausted. Every night, he had pored over the pages of his mother's collection of books on the supernatural, trying to find something to make the pack stronger. "I know."

"With Malia and I now...you stand a chance of _survival, _but not without losing anyone. Defeating them is almost out of the question."

Derek clenched his eyes shut and gripped the edge of the table. "I know. I've been searching to try and find some ritual, spell, anything to make us stronger but I've come up with nothing. I just don't know how to tell them. I don't want them to go in afraid."

Peter held a pain in his eyes. "But you can't let them go in blind either. Building the pack is what will put us over the edge. We need supernatural creatures."

Derek shook his head. "They're all in hiding, afraid. I've spoken to Deaton. He says that before the fire there was a huge supernatural community here, that people were less afraid. But, after what the Argents did, everyone left or went into hiding."

Peter nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. Everyone looked up to your mother around Beacon Hills. When she died, it would make sense that there would be panic." Derek's jaw clenched as guilt flooded him once again for what he'd caused. His uncle's eyes softened. "It wasn't your fault, Derek. Laura talked to me, well, talked _at_ me while I was in a coma. I know what happened and none of it was your fault. Your mom wouldn't have blamed you, either."

Derek doubted that, but, instead of arguing with his uncle, he changed the subject. "I can't lose anyone else, Peter, I need to protect them."

Peter looked at his nephew and smiled softly as he saw hints of the way Talia had been as an alpha in the young wolf. "Then do what you need to do."

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Lydia stood a little to the wayside as Chris and Allison explained the Argent family hunting techniques. "Each and every hunter in our family is trained in at least three forms of combat. It's a requirement." The pack and two former hunters stood out in the field that they used for training. "If you want to win a battle, you have to be prepared. Relying on only your claws and your reflexes will get you caught in a trap. The hunters plan for every possible scenario. There are contingency plans upon contingency plans, so you have to use your wits."

From there, Allison began to speak. "The most likely course of action will be a head on assault with smaller groups closing in and trying to surprise you. The long-range attack will begin first." Allison walked over to her father's truck and grabbed two large, heavy-looking duffel bags from the trunk. She dropped them on the floor in front of the pack with a thud. Unzipping it, she revealed a plethora of different weapons. "Each of us also has five or more specialized weapons. Two long-range, three close-quarters. Everything, _everything_ will be covered in wolfsbane. The hunters' intent is to exterminate."

Chris nodded. "Which is why we anticipate gas."

"Gas?" Lydia's eyebrows shot up. "Like a weaponized, airborne form of wolfsbane?"

Allison confirmed her comment. "It's rare, only used to be used when there was a rabid pack that was uncontrollable, but it exists and if they wanted to make this quick and easy, the air vents of your home are vulnerable."

"However," Chris mentioned, "Gerard has always had a flair for the dramatics. He and Kate, both. So, if they want, they may just take the battle straight to you. Torture, both psychological and mental is on the table. They'll want you to 'confess to your crimes' and probably out whatever supernatural creatures you know about."

"That's some _Crucible_ type shit." Stiles grunted.

Ignoring him, Derek addressed the two outsiders. "Do you know how many there are?"

Both shook their heads in dissent. "It's too hard to tell." Allison supplied. "The original size of the hunter party was around 50, but, after Gerard and Kate started spouting their bullshit, some left."

"But some joined, too." Chris added. "There's really no way of knowing, but preparing for 50 or more is safest."

Cora stood in the back behind Derek and let out the faintest of whimpers. Derek, however, heard it and the noise was like a bullet to his gut. Cora was strong, everyone knew that. But, what only her siblings knew was that she was traumatized by the loss of her family. Any mention of the fire or hunters shook her to the core and she was brought back to being eleven years old.

Derek took a step back and loosely grabbed his baby sister's hand, squeezing it.

Chris and Allison gave the pack instructions on training. They broke them into two groups, one training with Allison, one with her father.

When it was finally over, the pack was more tired than they thought they would be. Each one was aching and beaten down after realizing that the hunters were very much a threat.

Before they left, Chris addressed Melissa. "Ms. McCall?"

"Yes?" She looked surprised,

"I understand that you're a nurse?"

"I am." She confirmed.

Chris nodded. "I thought that I would speak to you about curing some of the poisons that could be used." He grabbed a bag, Melissa following him into one of the vacant rooms to set up things.

As everyone else headed into the house to clean up, Derek, Scott, and Lydia hung around with Allison.

"Thank you for coming." Derek told the young woman sincerely. "This will really help us."

"Of course." Allison responded, smiling ruefully. She addressed them all. "I didn't ever really want to be a hunter. I was brought in late but I guess I was being prepped my whole life, anyway." She looked at Scott and Lydia. "You guys are the same age as me. We're probably not all that different. Maybe we'd even be friends if my family wasn't so screwed up."

Scott offered a small smile. "Maybe we can be friends even in spite of that."

Lydia agreed. "Yeah, even your combat gear is cute, we'd get along."

Allison chuckled. "Thanks, gotta look my best."

When Chris returned, Derek thanked the pair once more before making an offer he never thought he would. "When your family arrives, they won't take kindly to your helping us."

"We know." The older man responded.

Derek couldn't believe he was about to do this. "If...if they decide to bring you into it, you have a place here. We could use the extra help and you'd have more protection with us."

If Chris was thrown(and he was), it didn't register on his face. "Noted."

When Derek returned to the house, Lydia was laughing at Scott and Stiles bounced his eyebrows suggestively. The wolf in question was blushing profusely at something that had been said. The Alpha focused his hearing and tuned into the conversation.

"_I'm just saying that maybe you'd have done better in combat if you hadn't been staring at her ass the whole time."_

"_Stiles, will you please just shut up?"_

Derek shook his head in amusement. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't seen the lingering looks that Scott gave Allison. He didn't know whether to be glad his beta could finally act his age and experience something special, or be afraid because the house had already been suffocated in the smells of hormones. Between Lydia and Jackson, and Cora and Stiles(yeah, he knew about that), he wasn't sure if he could handle Scott and Allison.

Derek sniffed the air. Okay, potentially adding Liam and Malia to that group. Gross.

He sat down at the dining table, simply watching in contentment as his pack relaxed. Stiles and Lydia were still teasing Scott; Noah and Natalie were washing the dishes; Laura, Jackson, and Cora were playing a board game; and Liam was quizzing Malia on her multiplication tables.

Melissa sat down across from the man as he watched. Derek had a particularly soft spot in his heart for Scott's mother.

After Derek had turned Scott following a near-fatal car accident, Melissa had become somewhat of a mother-figure for the Hale children.

"How are you feeling, Derek?" The nurse asked.

Derek chuckled. Ever the nurturer, Melissa. "Better. I'd be lying if I said 'good', but having Chris and Allison brief us makes us a little stronger."

The woman nods. "Yes, Chris left me an abundance of different types of wolfsbane in the spare room, all in sealed containers. He taught me how to use them to burn out the poison." She frowned as she said this.

"That's good." Derek remarked. "Having our own supply could save a lot of panic and time should someone get hit."

Melissa and Derek sat quietly for a few minutes, just quietly watching the pack. As Melissa got up to join the Sheriff and Natalie at the kitchen counter, she placed a hand on his forearm. "You're a good Alpha, Derek. I'm sure your mother would be proud."


	4. Chapter 4

Derek was awoken from his sleep. He knew why. The steady _thump _of Cora's heart beat had risen to frantic canter. The man quickly swung his legs over the side of his bed and threw open the door. Rushing down the hallway, he slid into Cora's room.

Cora thrashed on the bed, her legs tangled in the sheets as she whimpered. Her brows furrowed. "Daddy...run." She whispered. Derek's heart broke. His 20-year-old baby sister looked painfully small in the bed as she curled in on herself.

Derek sat on the edge of her bed and gently grabbed her arms which were thrown up in front of her face as if to protect herself. Cora resisted at first, pulling against him and crying out. Soon, though, her arms slackened and Derek pulled her against his side.

As she was calming down, Laura entered the room looking tired. She looked on sadly at her two siblings. Just like every other night it happened, Laura kneeled on the bed behind her twin brother and baby sister, combing her fingers through Cora's hair. Derek shushed Cora who slowly opened her eyes before shutting them again, embarrassed.

Derek and Laura looked at each other. They knew that until the hunters had been dealt with, Cora would be paralyzed by this fear nearly every night.

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The next night, Stiles speed-walked home from the grocery store. He knew that he was cutting it close with the pack curfew as a result of the hunters, but they had run out of butter and he wanted cookies.

Plastic bag in hand, Stiles turned the street. The sky was not yet dark, but the timer-controlled streetlights were already alight. Ahead of him walked a mildly familiar young woman. Stiles thought that maybe he had seen her around school before. Dismissing it from mind, the young man turned his thoughts back to last night.

He knew that Cora had another nightmare. He could see it in her face in the morning. Stiles wished that he had known last night so that he could be with her, ut he also knew that Laura and Derek were there for her.

Stiles was brought from his thoughts as a car sped down the street. His heart jumped in his chest as he saw it near the young woman, unslowed. The girl was distracted as she stared down at her phone while crossing the street.

"Hey-!" Just as he shouted, the young woman looked up and threw herself backward, narrowly being missed by the speeding sports car. Stiles' eyes widened as he watched sparks fly out from her as she fell, bolts of lightning striking the surrounding streetlights and causing them to explode. Stiles stood slack-jawed as the scene unfolded.

The girl looked up, glanced at his face, and then got up and hurried away.

What the hell was that?

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Stiles threw open the door to the pack house, drawing the attention of everyone.

Sheriff Stilinski's brows were drawn in concern. "Cutting it close there Sti-"

"I think I found another supernatural creature."

Silence.

"Um, what?" Malia.

He launched into his story. "I was walking home and there was this girl, I think she's in one of my classes -medieval history or something. Anyway, she wasn't paying attention and almost got hit by this idiot who was speeding, but when she jumped out of the way she like, shot out electricity of lightning and exploded all the streetlights."

Derek was wide-eyed. "Kitsune."

"Thunder kitsune." Peter confirmed.

"What's a kitsune?" Liam inquired.

"A Japanese fox spirit." Laura supplied. "There are 13 types and thunder is one of them. They're incredibly powerful."

"But are notorious for not getting along with wolves." Peter said pointedly.

Derek shook his head. "Desperate times. If we can ally with former hunters, I think we can try this. Foxes don't normally run in packs, either, so it's likely she's alone. She'll be vulnerable to hunters."

"So we take her in?" Jackson seemed rather distrustful.

"No," Derek said, "we talk to her. If she's trustworthy, we offer her a place in the pack. If not, we warn her about the hunters and part ways."

Cora spoke up. "Bringing a kitsune into the pack...it'll make us much more powerful."

Derek nodded and addressed the college kids. "I need some of you to find her tomorrow. Not all of you, don't scare her. But all of you be on the lookout and then two or three talk to her and bring her here." They nodded. "Alright, go do your homework."

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Stiles spotted her in class the next day. While sitting in the lecture, he texted Lydia and Jackson(Scott was at home).

**StilesS: foxgirl is here. meet prof hildersons after class**

**LydiaM: omw**

**JacksonW: ill be there**

When the professor dismissed them, Stiles rushed out of the door. He saw Lydia and Jackson waiting for him in the hall. He greeted them and then turned back to the door. When the girl walked out, she passed them with her head down. Stiles called after her. "Hey!" He ran up and laid a hand on her shoulder.

The girl flinched and shuffled backward, eyes darting between him, Jackson, and Lydia. She grabbed Stiles' sleeve and pulled him toward the side of the hall, the other two following. The pretty asian girl spoke in a low voice. "Please, you can't tell anyone what you saw. It was jus-"

"We know what you are." Lydia cut in. The girl's eyes widened. "We're not going to hurt you but you need to come speak with our Alpha. It's important."

"Alpha?" She repeated. "You guys are wolves?"

"No, but Lydia here gets mighty feisty once a month." Stiles quips. "The only wolf here is Jackson, the pretty one. I'm Stiles and I already mentioned Lydia's lack of monthly rage outside of uterus-killing time."

"Stiles, bite me."

"Can't, I just said I'm not a werewolf."

"I'm Kira." The girl said. "Why do you need me to meet your Alpha?"

"Trust us," Jackson said, "you'll want someone other than this spazz to explain it."

"Hey, not cool."

"Just come with us." Lydia continued. "We promise that it's important."

Kira hesitated before conceding. "...okay."

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Derek had kicked everyone else out of the house when Stiles texted. Only he and Laura remained, deciding that they should start small as to not scare her.

They heard the car pull through the gate first. When the sound of the door opening reached their ears, a scent smacked Derek in the face. He didn't know how to describe it except..._warmth._

Derek rolled his eyes as Stiles' voice floated to them.

"_He's kind of a sourwolf but I promise he's mildly normal about 2% of the time. A bit broody, his soul is probably made of leather. Yeah that actually makes a lot of sense."_

The voice grew louder as they approached the door. Stiles entered first. "Oh, Alpha Hale, I bring thee that which you ha-" Derek shot him a glare. "Shutting up."

Derek and Laura straightened as the next person entered. A petite young asian woman gingerly slipped through the door, looking around before meeting Derek's eyes. It took all of his willpower to control his eyes and keep them from flashing red.

She was beautiful. Delicate. Tiny. The exact opposite of him. But when he focused harder, he could see the faint luminescent outline of a fox encompassing her small body, flames appearing to lick around her.

Kira herself was feeling quite...awed. The man before her was gorgeous. His mossy green eyes locked on hers. He was tall and _built_. His muscles bulged through his long sleeve and the scruffy beard on his face looked kind of soft. Kira shook her head a little to rid it of the thought. _Nope nope nopedy nope nope._

He was powerful, that much Kira could tell. It practically radiated out of him.

Derek cleared his throat and licked his lips. "I'm uh, I'm sorry about having these these guys ambush you at school, but I needed to talk to you as soon as possible."

Kira's voice grew impossibly small at the sound of his deep, booming, _freaking hot as all hel-_ wait, chill out Kira-voice. "It's alright, they were fine." A beat passed. "Maybe a little weird, but I mean, not the _I'm gonna kill you and harness your supernatural power unless you come with me _kind of weird_. _Not that that's ever happened, but I've heard that it…" Kira trailed off as she met the Alpha's mildly amused eyes, a smirk sitting on his face. "...sorry."

A chuckle rumbled through Derek's chest. He couldn't help it, she was adorable. "It's okay. My name is Derek Hale, I'm the Alpha of our pack." He gestured to the woman who stood behind him slightly. "This is my sister, Laura. The rest of the pack is out running, we didn't want the shitheads to freak you out."

Kira gave a small smile and Derek's heart jumped a bit. _Oh. _Derek ignored the raised eyebrow that Laura sent him and kept his attention trained on the fox. "I'm Kira Yukimura. Lydia said you...already know what I am."

Derek nodded. "A thunder kitsune. If my memory serves me correctly, there aren't very many left."

Kira's gave a sad smile and shook he head. "Not after the _Ryōshi_(huntsman) determined that we were...too dangerous to exist anymore."

Derek nodded and exhaled long through his nose. "Kira...we brought you here because something is coming. Something big."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" Kira asked.

"Hunters." Derek glanced at his few packmates around the room. "A rogue faction of hunters is coming and they mean to wipe us out. All of us."

"You mean your pack?" She clarified.

"No." He replied. "They want to exterminate all supernatural creatures."

Kira's eyebrows shot up to her hairline as she looked around the room. "Everyone?" They all nodded. "My God."

Laura spoke for the first time that night. "Kira, everyone is in danger. We think that Beacon is home to many supernatural creatures, but...after this same group of hunters attacked years ago," she glanced at her twin sadly, "most went into hiding. These people are dangerous to not only supernaturals, but humans too. If they so much as suspect that someone is supernatural, they'll slaughter them."

Derek locked eyes with the young fox. "Kira, let's cut to the chase. Do you have a pack?"

The young woman's eyes widened a bit. "Me? No, no foxes are solitary, usually." She hesitated. "Not that I haven't tried, but I've been sort of forced to be alone. Kitsunes stand alone."

Derek considered her carefully. "But you wouldn't if you had the choice?"

She shook her head slowly. "I guess I'm an anomaly."

Derek made eye contact with each of his present pack members. Everyone seemed to be in agreement. "Things are going to get rough. People are going to die and we need to stick together."

Kira's eyebrows shot straight up as she realized what he was saying. "You want me to join you?"

"It will be safer for you and all of us. Pack members feed off of each others' power-the more members we have, the stronger we'll be."

She seemed unsure. "Are-are you sure? You only just met me and I don't want to cause problems because my mom always said that wolves and foxes don't get along which I don't understand because I like you just fine."

Derek raised an amused eyebrow. Kira flushed and backtracked. "Not you. I mean, not just you but everyone here. But I don't _not _mean you, Derek, cuz I do like you but like-I should really stop talking right now."

Stiles smirked and put a hand on her shoulder. "I think I'm gonna like you."

Derek shot Kira a small smile. Her heart skipped a beat. "Somehow I don't think we're gonna have any problems."

Slowly, a shy smile spread itself across her face and Derek had to calm his heart beat which increased at the sight. Behind him, Laura hid a smirk behind her hand as she caught Jackson's eye. _D's got a cruuushhhhh. _


	5. Chapter 5

"So how long have you guys been a part of Derek's pack?" The young pack members were spread out around the living room, textbooks and computers surrounding them as they formed one large study group. The older adults were all at work, including Peter who Noah Stilinski had taken on at the department as a 'Special Consultant'-which really meant he scoured through old unsolved cases to see if the supernatural had any influence in it, and Liam and Malia were at school. That left Cora, Scott, Lydia, Stiles, Jackson, and Kira at home.

Everyone looked up at Kira''s question. The kitsune had been spending more and more time with the pack as she got to know them. She wasn't living in the big house yet, understandably, but they all knew that she would have to eventually.

Everyone was getting along with Kira amazingly well. With the exception of Malia who still held onto more of her animal side than anyone else because of her years spent feral, none of the werewolves (or just _weres)_ seemed to have any issue with Kira.

Honestly, Kira got along better with everyone than anyone had with each other in the beginning. She was a literal ray of sunshine. Between her and Scott, everyone was blinded.

_The day after Kira's meeting with Derek, Stiles brought her back to the house to meet the rest of the pack. _

_Kira was nervous. Stiles glanced at her as they approached the house. Her brow was slightly furrowed and she pulled on her fingers, fidgeting. "You're gonna be fine, I promise."_

"_What if they don't like me? I mean, sometimes I've been told that I can be a little much. I just think I'm friendly, but maybe I'm pushy? I _know _that_ _I'm awkward too, what if it's too much? Stiles, I'm not ready." Kira panicked. Stiles watched in slight amusement as her arms flapped with her words. He wondered if that's what he looked like to his friends._

"_Kira," Stiles grabbed her shoulders and shook her once, "they're going to like you just fine. You don't need to worry about being overly friendly, Scott has conditioned us to think it's normal, and awkward is nothing new. Don't think you're so special, I'm the king of awkward. You can't dethrone me."_

_Kira nodded at the information, breathing in deeply. Together, they walked into the big house. Immediately all eyes turned to them. At the amused expressions on some of their faces, Kira's eyes grew wide and her face flushed pink. _Right, _she thought, _werewolf hearing.

"_Everyone," Stiles addressed the room, "this is Kira."_

"_Hiiiiii Kiraaaaa." They responded cornily, one of the boys giggling in the back._

"_It's like an AA meeting." She commented, eyebrow raised. At this a couple more chuckles broke out._

_Stiles rolled his eyes. "They're not possessed, I swear, they're just being weird." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, you've already met Derek, Laura, Lydia, and Jackson." She nodded as he motioned to the four. Derek stood, arms crossed as he leaned against the kitchen doorway. He shot her a smile and she grinned back shyly. Laura sat on the floor, leaning against a younger girl's legs, and Lydia and Jackson occupied a couch along with another two people. "Buuut, let's just do a review because family trees are fun with this pack."_

"_Alpha, Derek Hale." Stiles pointed Derek who simply raised an eyebrow at the boy._

"_Then there's Laura, Derek's twin sister, on the floor who's leaning against their younger sister, Cora's, legs." Huh, Kira didn't know they were twins. _

"_Next to Cora are, you've met them already, Lydia Martin-banshee, and Jackson Whittemore-werewolf. Closing out that couch is Liam Dunbar. He's a senior at BHHS and a werewolf." They waved._

"_Next couch: first one is Scott McCall, my best friend and Derek's first bitten beta; then there's Peter Hale-Derek, Cora, and Laura's uncle who was in a coma for nine years;" Kira raised her eyebrows, "and then Malia Hale-Peter's daughter who no one knew existed until recently. Peter's a wolf, Malia's a coyote."_

"_And then," Stiles finished up, "we have my dad, Noah Stilinski; Lydia's mother, Natalie Martin; and Scott's mother, Melissa McCall." Kira shot a small smile to the room. Stiles turned to her and pointed. "Kira Yukimura, thunder kitsune, ray of sunshine."_

_Derek spoke up from his spot in the doorway. "There's also Chris Argent and his daughter, Allison. They're allies of the pack, you'll meet them." _

Kira grimaces. "Sorry for interrupting, I just can't keep researching medieval torture techniques without a break." She sighs as she stares down at her, so far, five-page essay.

"It's fine." Scott replied, sitting back from his spot at the coffee table and leaning against the couch. "I need a break too."

"Same." Replied Cora. Everyone was soon standing up and stretching, walking into the kitchen to grab a snack or some water and then coming back to the group. Kira almost thought they had forgotten about her question until Cora spoke again, now resettled on the small couch. "I mean, I've never _not _been part of D's pack. We were betas in my mom's pack and, when she died, Derek became my Alpha." Kira saw the way her eyes grew sad at the mention of her mother, but decided not to comment.

"I was the first bitten beta." Scott said. "It was three years ago, we were seniors in high school. We were all friends with Cora, who had just moved back, but none of us had any clue about the supernatural. I was driving Cora home from school one night when this drunk guy ran us off the road and we tumbled over the edge and into this deep ditch." Kira glanced at Cora who looked tense at the mention of that night. "The car was flipped upside down and I was out of it. But, I just remembered wondering how Cora was okay enough to climb out of the car. I probably should've been thinking about how she ripped the door off its hinges but, hey, I was dying." Scott paused after he mentioned his brush with death. "She howled and I was terrified. We were close to the edge of the woods so Laura and Derek got there quick."

"_Cora?!" Scott heard the muffled shout from his place in the car. "Cor, what's wrong?"_

That must be Derek, _Scott thought. He and the others hadn't met Cora's siblings, but had heard the occasional mention of them._

"_Derek!" Cora sounded frantic. "Derek, please, you have to bite him. You have to save him."_

"_Bite who?" It was a woman now. _

"_Scott. He's stuck in the car and he's dying. Please, Derek." Scott couldn't help the concern that grew at the sound of his friend's crying. _

_It seemed that neither could her brother, though. "Okay, okay shhhh. Calm down, Cor. Let's get him out of the car." Scott heard footsteps grow closer and the sound of crunching glass as someone knelt down by his window. "Scott?" Derek called to him through the opening. Scott opened his mouth to respond, but only a broken moan escaped. Derek turned to speak to his sisters. "We gotta get him out of there, he's fading fast."_

_Scott was confused. Were they talking about him? The sound of metal creaking startled him as the door was pried from its hinges. "Scott, my name is Laura." Cora's sister spoke softly to him. "We're going to get you out of here so we can help you, alright?" Laura, who was smaller than Derek, crawled halfway through the opening. "I need to unbuckle your seatbelt now, but I'm going to hold you up so you don't fall." _

_Scott hummed in response. He felt Laura place an arm under his chest before releasing his seat belt and pulling him toward her. If he had been more lucid, he'd have wondered how she had managed to hold him up so easily. Scott cried out weakly as pain shot through his body. "It hurz." He slurred with eyes clenched._

"_Alright, alright, it's gonna be fine." Scott sighed as pain was leached from him body. Maybe he was dying and his body was just trying to make it easier. Unbeknownst to him, the older Hale sister was pulling pain from his body as she held him. Laura eased him out of the car and into the open air. Cora sat waiting for them and Laura set him gently in her lap._

"_Cor...you 'kay?" Scott whispered to her as she stroked his hair._

_Cora let out a wet chuckle. Ever the worrier, Scott McCall. "Yeah, I'm okay Scott, but you're not."_

"_Yeah," he agreed softly, his eyes a little unfocused, "I don't feel so good." _

"_I know, Scott, I know. But we're going to help you if you say it's okay." Cora breathed shakily as she pushed his hair away from his forehead. "You'll be different, Scott, but you'll be alive."_

"_Cora, he's fading fast." Laura warned urgently._

"_Scott? Scott. Please, let us help you. Please." She cupped his cheek as his eyes began to close. In his last coherent moments, he locked eyes with her. A nod._

_Cora looked up at her big brother as Scott's head lolled to the side. "Derek, Derek, Derek. Now." Derek dropped to his knees next to the pair and grabbed Scott's arm before sinking his fangs into the forearm. His eyes flashed Alpha red as he released his jaw and set Scott's limp arm on his stomach._

_Cora looked back at his face. "Scott? Please stay alive. Please." She whispered to her friend as a couple of tears dripped down her cheek. Laura sat down in the dirt next to her sister and listened hard._

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

_Laura smiled as the beat grew stronger. "Cora. Cora just listen." Her frantic baby sister calmed for a moment. Her breath hitched when she caught the growing heart beat from the boy in her arms. "He's gonna be okay, Cor."_

"I woke up the next morning in their house. I was so confused." Scott told his story. "I didn't believe them at first, but it was hard to deny the glowing eyes and fangs. I told Stiles after that."

Stiles chuckled. "Yeah, that was a fun conversation."

"_Bro."_

"_Yeah."_

"Bro."

"_I know."_

"Bro!"

"_Stiles, use some words please!"_

"_Are you shitting me?" Stiles stared at his best friend incredulously. Scott looked at Cora. She focused her gaze on Stiles and quickly flashed her golden eyes, raising an eyebrow. Stiles squeaked and fell out of his chair. "Bro."_

"_Stiles!"_

Kira giggled as they told their short story. She had met them only recently, but could already see it happening in her head.

Scott continued. "Then, for a while, it was just us. The Hales and me and, occasionally, Stiles would be there."

"And then I happened." Lydia peeped up, giving a small smile, if not a bit sad. The room deflated a little bit as they all seemed to recall the story.

Kira was hesitant, but asked anyway. "How did you join?"

Lydia sighed and grasped her boyfriend's hand. Jackson squeezed her fingers and shot her an encouraging smile. "I got sick."

"_Lydia, Elaine, and Walter, please convert the polar equations on the board to rectangular form." Lydia stood from her seat confidently and strode to the board, the other two students following her more unsurely. _

_Lydia plucked a piece of chalk from the shelf and began converting the equation. _Cosine 4π/3 is equal to negative ½..._the chalk clattered to the floor as Lydia grasped her head and stumbled. She clutched at her head as the pain worsened, back hunched in pain._

"_Lydia?" The teacher stood up alarmed as did Scott and Stiles. Scott bent in front of her and grabbed her wrists, thankful he was wearing a sweatshirt as he leached some of her pain away. Scott had to stifle a groan as her pain hit him. It was intense, as if someone was driving a knife through his forehead. _

_Lydia raised her eyes to meet Scott's and tried to speak. Her vision went blurry, crossing before she blacked out completely. The strawberry-blond collapsed and crashed into the board on her way down. Scott immediately kneeled and cradled her head. "Someone call 911!"_

_Hours later, Scott and Stiles sat in the waiting room with Stiles' father and Lydia's mother. The ambulance had rushed over and taken Lydia to the hospital as the class fell into commotion. Stiles and Scott had raced to the hospital and been waiting ever since._

_Just then, the door to the waiting room swung open and Melissa McCall walked in with a grave expression. All of them stood up but Natalie Martin rushed forward. _

_Melissa glanced at all of their faces with pained eyes. "She-" Melissa's voice shook with emotion. The woman closed her eyes and composed herself before speaking quietly. "Lydia has Glioblastoma."_

_Stiles fell back in his chair, which scraped loudly, and dragged his hands down his face, shaking his head. "A brain tumor?"_

_Natalie sobbed, covering her mouth. Melissa nodded grimly. "An aggressive brain tumor. It's progressed without her noticing."_

"_What's going to happen? What can we do?" Natalie asked desperately, grasping Melissa's arm._

_Melissa grabbed both of her hands and looked down. "Natalie there isn't anything we can do. It's too far along for any treatment other than pain-management." Melissa paused. "A month."_

_The woman simply stared at the nurse in the eyes before sinking slowly to the floor. From her place on her knees, the ever-composed Natalie Martin's shoulders began to tremble. "Not my baby…" The broken woman cried. Her cries were heart-wrenching and guttural. _

_Melissa slid down next to her and wrapped her arms around the crying woman._

_Scott and Stiles were in shock. This girl that they had known, been friends with since elementary school was going to die._

_After Natalie had calmed considerably, Melissa quietly informed the room that Lydia would be awake soon and ready for visitors. There could only be two at a time, so the boys let Natalie enter the room first. _

_For the ten minutes that she's in there, the two best friends are completely silent. When Natalie Martin walks out, she turns to them and smiles sadly. "You boys can go in now, she's not awake yet. I have to make a call." The woman wipes her face and walks down the hall._

_Scott stops at the door and looks back at Stiles. Together, they push open the door and shuffle in as quietly as they can. Lydia lays on the bed, completely still. Her normally pale skin practically blends in with the sheets of the hospital bed now. _

_The two boys look at her and wonder how they missed it. She was thinner now, dark bags visible even under her makeup. Lydia Martin looked so tired. They had been so caught up in Scott's werewolf issues for the past months that they had ignored their friend. And neither had regretted anything more._

"_Brain tumor, right?" A voice spoke up from the bed. Scott and Stiles looked up in shock. "I mean, I'm just guessing. But the nausea from the last few months, the constant headaches, combined with the blurry vision from earlier? Seems likely. Plus, you two looked like someone just kicked a cat. And you were the cat."_

_Stiles sat down on the chair beside her bed and held her hand. "Yeah. You're right."_

_The girl gave a smile but it lacked its usual mirth. "Aren't I always?" Lydia squeezed his hand before whispering. "How bad is it?"_

_Stiles looked down at the girl who, usually so confident, had fear in her eyes. "Glioblastoma."_

_Lydia sucked in a breath. "How long?"_

"_Melissa says a month."_

"_Oh." Her voice caught. "I need to call Jackson. He just had to pick this week to go to Germany with his family, didn't he?" Lydia let out a little laugh, but it was bitten off by a sob. Scott, who had been standing by the foot of her bed sat by her hip and pulled her into his arms. Lydia clung to his back as she weeped. For her life, her friends, everything she'd never be able to do now._

_Later, when Mrs. Martin came back, the boys left to give the mother and daughter some time. As soon as the hospital doors swung close behind them, Scott spoke. "We're going to Hale House."_

"_I know." Was Stiles' only reply. The ride there was silent, both boys lost in their own thoughts. When Stiles' blue jeep pulled in through the large gates that protected the property, he pulled the car over to the side and hopped out with Scott._

_The teenage werewolf pulled out the key Derek had given him and opened the door. _

"_Scott? Stiles?" Laura immediately called from somewhere in the house. The 23-year old emerged from the kitchen and immediately caught onto their scent. "What's wrong?"_

_Before either could respond, Cora was bounding down the stairs. "How's Lydia?" The look in Stiles' eyes goes dark and Scott can't meet her eyes. "Oh no." Cora wasn't very close to Lydia, unable to understand the strawberry blond, but she knew how special she was to Scott and Stiles. She never wanted anything bad to happen to her._

"_Derek." Scott's voice was serious. "She's dying."_

_The Alpha looked at his beta knowingly. "And you want me to bite her."_

"_Glioblastoma." Stiles said quietly. "Do you know what that is? It's a rare and lethal brain cancer that spreads rapidly. Derek, we can't lose her."_

_Derek stared at the pair thoughtfully. "Only if she wants it. It's not like it was with you, Scott. You were seconds away from dying and it was a choice we had to make for you. Lydia gets this choice for herself and gets to know the risks that we couldn't tell you."_

_Scott nodded eagerly. "Okay, yes." He smiled and dragged his hand down his face. "Thank you, Derek."_

_An hour or two later, the two boys and Derek arrived at the hospital. _

"_Scott? What are you doing here? Visiting hours are over." Melissa's voice called out. Just then, she noticed Derek standing a ways back. "Oh." She exhaled sharply. "Wolf stuff."_

"_Mom, we can save Lydia. Can you help us get to her room?" Scott pleaded._

_Melissa shushed her son. "Scott, if you say that any louder you are not going to have an 'inside mama'-yes, Stiles, I've heard you-in the hospital anymore." The exasperated mother sighed and looked around before motioning the boys to follow her. _

_They arrived at Lydia's door and Melissa ushered them in. "Be quick."_

_The two teens tried to be slick and slip into the room, but Stiles tripped over the leg of a coat rack by the door. The spastic boy clattered to the floor with a thud. Scott cringed and shushed him, hurrying to help him up from the floor. Derek simply stood back, an unimpressed look on his face._

"_You do know that visiting hours are over, right?" Lydia was sat up in bed, chin propped on the heel of her palm. The strawberry blond quirked an eyebrow at the pair before noticing the man behind them. "You're new."_

_Scott introduced the two. "Lydia, this is Derek, Cora's older brother."_

"_And what is 'Derek, Cora's older brother' doing in my hospital room as I lay dying?" _

_Stiles flinched. "Lydia, there's something we need to talk to you about?"_

_The girl perked up a little at the comment and sat up straighter. "Alright, continue."_

_Scott shared a glance with Stiles before responding. "We can save your life."_

_Lydia's brow furrowed and her eyes grew hard. "There isn't anything that can be done. Even if it had been caught early, there's a low rate of survival, about 10%." She looked down. "Please, stop. I don't need to be hopeful."_

_Scott and Stiles looked on painfully. "Lydia, please, you have to believe us. We-"_

"_Scott, I don't want to hear it."_

"_Lyds, wait-"_

"_Scott, just leave if-!"_

"_I'm a werewolf!" He yelled in desperation. Lydia stopped mid sentence and stared at him._

_Stiles exhaled loudly. "Well, that's one way to do it."_

_Lydia just stared at them, but it wasn't shock in her eyes, it was hurt. "Why are you two playing jokes on me right now? This isn't funny. I thought that you…" The teen genius trailed off as she stared into the glowing golden eyes of her friend. "Oh."_

"_Do you remember when my car was totaled?" Scott asked, blinking his eyes to rid them of their glow._

_Lydia nodded dazedly, eyes wide. "You said that… your car stalled on the side of the road and you got out to call Stiles. While you were outside, a car came by and hit your car and...sent it over the edge of the road."_

_Scott nodded. "I did tell you that, but it wasn't what happened." He sighed and leaned over, bracing his elbows on his knees as he sat down. "I was in the car when it went over, Cora was too. A drunk driver rammed us and we went over the edge."_

_Lydia shook her head. "No. No, that's impossible. There's no way that you could have rolled down a hill in a car and gotten out unscathed. You were fine the next day!" _

_Scott smiled sadly and layed a hand on Lydia's arm. "I didn't get out unscathed, Lyds, I almost died. Cora called for her siblings and Derek bit me to save my life."_

_Derek spoke for the first time that night. "Werewolves have heightened healing abilities, it was the only way we could save him."_

_It then dawned on Lydia, then, what they intended to do. "And these heightened healing abilities would save me." _

_The Alpha wolf nodded. "Could save you. The bite doesn't always take, sometimes… the body rejects it."_

"_That doesn't sound fun." Lydia mused. "I assume I would die?"_

_Derek confirmed her suspicions with a solemn nod. _

_But the girl simply shrugged. "It's not like I would survive anyway if the bite didn't work."_

_Stiles' eyes were wide. "So you'll do it? You believe us?"_

_Lydia actually chuckles. "Did you know there's actually a substantial amount of scientific evidence that suggests the compatibility of canine and human genes should they be spliced together. It was going to be my senior thesis topic. Guess that's out the door."_

_Scott was excited, too, now. "Oh my God, let's do it."_

"_Woah, Scott, hold on. I-" She seemed conflicted. "Can we wait? Until we have to do it? It's just that...if the bite doesn't take, I want to have as much time with you guys as I can."_

"_Everything will be fine, Lydia. It will work."_

"Except it didn't work." Lydia said from her spot. "At least not how we thought it would. A month later, I was almost on my way out."

"Derek bit her," Stiles continued, "but it looked like her body was rejecting it."

Cora nodded in agreement. "She started bleeding black blood and went into anaphylactic shock." Kira looked at the girl in question who wore a grim expression as she remembered her brush with death. "We took her to Deaton's but it didn't look good. We thought we'd lose her."

Jackson, who had yet to speak, grabbed Lydia's hand. "Then, suddenly, two days later, it all stopped. The black blood stopped coming and she stabilized."

"The brain tumor was gone. A medical miracle." Lydia lamented mirthlessly. "But I wasn't a wolf."

Cora shook her head. "She smelled...different. Not human. It wasn't until a couple months later when she found her first body that we'd find out what she was."

"Banshee." Smirked Lydia. "Just like my grandma, not that we'd known it."

"And then, with her, came me." Jackson drawled. "I think my entrance into the supernatural world was the least dramatic."

"What do you mean?" Kira raised a brow.

"I asked and he bit me."

"Oh." She giggled.

"And now, we've got you." Stiles placed a hand on her shoulder and Kira leaned in to bump him with her shoulder.

"Yeah." The young kitsune smiled at her new friends.


	6. Chapter 6

Derek was different around her.

_Everyone _noticed it.

The wolf in question trailed behind the younger woman, carrying three large boxes of her things in his arms. Kira was officially moving in two weeks after she had met the pack.

The kitsune in question carried a duffle bag over her shoulder and was practically bouncing with excitement. She flounced up to the room that she had chosen and set down the bag on the bed, flopping down after it.

Kira giggled as she bounced lightly and Derek smiled at her. "You havin' fun there?"

"Yup." She popped the 'p' and grinned back at him.

"Okay." He breathed out as he set the boxes down next to her dresser for her to unpack later. "C'mon, let's go back down."

The pair stepped around Kira's things which lay scattered around the room from being haphazardly thrown into the room. They walked down the stairs to where the rest of the pack was sitting in the living room.

"Kira!" Stiles called out. "Finally, someone with some common sense." He glared back at the rest of the room who all seemed to simultaneously roll their eyes. "Should we watch _Iron Man _or _Captain America._"

From his emphasis on the former, Kira knew which movie he wanted her to pick, but Kira smiled apologetically at him. "Sorry, Sti, I'm a sucker for the first avenger."

The human squawked. "Betrayal." He sniffed and marched over to his spot next to Cora on the couch, who patted his arm as he pouted.

Kira looked around the room. Everyone was already settled and there was only one seat left on the lone armchair that Derek almost always occupied("Because he's so freaking large! He doesn't fit on the couches with us normal people." Stiles had told her.") Kira shrugged and just moved to sit down on the floor.

"Hey, Ki, you can sit here." Kira's eyebrows raised at the sound of Derek's voice. Her cheeks burned and she bit her lip to suppress her smile at the nickname. _Ki._

Over at the couches, the rest of the pack gaped at them. Derek had just offered her _the chair. _He called her _a nickname. _Where the fuck was their alpha?

"Are you sure, Derek?" Kira looked at him shyly, inching forward.

Derek rolled his eyes good-naturedly and beckoned her over. "Yes, I'm sure, Ki. Just sit, it's fine."

Kira grinned and ran a little before hopping, _hopping_, onto the large chair. She was dwarfed by the cushiony throne and she curled up a little in it, looking every bit the fox that she was. Derek chuckled a little, causing Stiles and Scott's eyes to bulge at the warm sound, and picked up a throw blanket from the corner, placing it gently on her.

Kira smiled and thanked him. By this point, even the Sheriff was staring wide-eyed at the exchange, but the two were too caught up in staring adoringly at each other to notice the pack's incredulity.

Cora mouthed to her sister across the room. "_What. The. Fuck?" _Laura shrugged, bewildered.

Derek sat down in front of his usual seat and leaned back against it, head close to Kira's who was curled against the armrest, using it as a pillow.

Stiles started _Captain America_, but it seemed as though only a couple of the members of the pack were actually watching. Malia stared confusedly at the screen, needing Liam to explain what had happened every five minutes; Sheriff Stilinski absentmindedly ate popcorn with Melissa while watching. Kira watched with rapt attention, but absentmindedly carded her fingers through Derek's hair. The wolf in question rested his head against the armrest, eyes closed and looking more relaxed than anyone had seen him in a long while.

Aside from the Sheriff, who had resolved himself to ignoring the romantic happenstances of supernatural creatures, the rest of the pack attempted to pay attention to the movie, but kept glancing back at the pair.

Melissa cooed at the positively sweet sight and Natalie sighed. Kira had fallen asleep in the chair and was dozing softly, her hand still tucked into Derek's dark locks. Derek was awake, but just barely, his eyelids droopy as he watched the movie. He made no move to remove Kira's hand from his head.

Just next to the two mothers, Scott and Stiles watched slightly disturbed by the out of character actions of their alpha. Their faces were painted by both shock and...something like constipation. Derek's sisters just smiled happily at their brother's contented look.

When the movie ended, nobody moved for a while. At the sleepy look on everyone's faces, Laura got an idea. "Hey, how about we do a pack night?"

Cora's eyes lit up at the prospect and she bounced giddily from her spot on the couch. Everyone else agreed in some way, verbal or physical. Only Kira and the three parents looked a little confused.

"What's a pack night?" Kira questioned sleepily from where she had woken when the lights turned on.

Derek tilted his head up so he could respond. "Pack night is when we all take pillows and blankets and make like, a nest in the living room and we all just sleep in it together. We used to do it with our family pack and we started doing it with this one about a year ago."

Kira smiled, eyes blinking blearily from her nap. "That sounds really fun."

"It's the best." Scott agreed.

Everyone got up and rushed off to their rooms to change and get ready for bed. When they returned, each was carrying piles of blankets and pillows in their arms. The tables and chairs were pushed up against the walls to make room in the center of the living room.

Once space was created, they took apart the couch cushions and piled them in the middle to make a giant mattress. Blankets and pillows were laid on top until, just like Derek had said, a nest of sorts was created.

The parents had decided not to join them, stating that they were too old to cuddle and gossip with them-Melissa's words. The pack milled around, chatting and snacking on chips and such while getting comfy.

In the kitchen, Derek was grabbing a glass from the cabinet when Kira padded in.

"Grab me one?" He turned to face her. Derek couldn't help himself and grinned at her oversized t-shirt and tiny lounge shorts. A pair of big glasses rested on her nose.

"Get it yourself." Derek teased. "And since when do kitsunes need glasses?"

"Since a _Ryōshi _nearly burned my eyes out with a flash bomb when I was five." She deadpanned. Derek's eyes widened. Kira smiled, shaking her head. "It's fine, Der. And I can't get to the cups because some tall jerk keeps putting them on the _highest_ shelf and I have to scale the counter to get to them."

"Oh yeah," he smirked, "keep forgetting that you're four feet tall."

"Rude! I'm 5'2"" She sniffed.

"And you're real proud of that, aren't you?" Derek laughed as Kira smacked him in the stomach.

They walked together out to the living room where the rest of the pack was already situated on the nest of cushions. They paused in the doorway as they saw that the pack had already arranged themselves, leaving only a spot near the edge for the Kira and Derek to squeeze into.

Derek ignored Stiles who bounced his eyebrows at them on the other side of the nest. Derek cleared his throat as he looked at Kira. She smiled at him, seemingly non-plussed. "Well, are you getting in or what?"

The alpha raised his hands in surrender before grabbing a blanket from the floor and sinking into the nest. Kira flounced down next to him. It was a tight fit, the pack had barely left them any space. They tried shifting around a couple times before finally settling down. Kira's legs were draped across Liam's thighs and her face angled towards Derek's chest.

A chorus of goodnights rang out around the room when the lights were shut off.

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Oh.

Kira awoke the next morning in a tangle of many unknown limbs, many pack members having moved around during the night. Including her. Sometime last night, she had rolled over toward Derek. Kira's head was pillowed by the area between his shoulder and neck, his arm wrapped securely around her. Her left hand splayed across his hard abdomen.

Derek shifted, sighing as he stirred. He nuzzled his face in her hair before freezing. Derek's eyes shot open as he woke. He glanced down at the girl who he held and stiffened. _Oh shit. _

He and Kira spoke at the same time.

"Uh, s-sorry. I didn't mean to…yeah."

"I should uh, yeah, I can-"

They stopped, both just sitting up and clearing their throats. The pack groaned around them as nearly everyone was shifted by the movement.

"Hey, can you two love birds...love wolves...s'mthin' like that, not disturb the sleeping Stiles." The young man referred to himself in the third person.

"Stiles."

"...yes, Derek?"

"I wouldn't say too much when you're practically conjoined with my baby sister."

Kira giggled.

"Noted." Stiles remarked before promptly falling asleep once again.


	7. Chapter 7

Derek wasn't freaking out. He was a grown-ass man and he could handle his emotions. He was an emotionally secure, strong 26 year-old werewolf who-

"You're freaking out, aren't you?" Cora asked.

"I...am freaking out, yup." Derek confirmed.

The past week that Kira had been living with the pack had been great. Really, _really_ great and Derek was realizing just how deep he was. He was gone. And that was not good.

Cora and Laura were the only ones who he would talk to about it. Everyone else was pack, he loved them, but they wouldn't understand why this _terrified _him so much.

Derek falling in love with Kira (NO, not love. No.) would be amazing for the rest of the pack. They'd all think it was great. But Laura and Cora understood that Derek had been burned. Badly. Like, 'burn down your home and kill almost your entire family because I hate what you are' badly.

So, this time around, he had resolved to putting a stop to it before someone else got hurt.

That first night after she had moved in had been amazing. That night, as he held her in his arms, well, he couldn't remember feeling that content in a long time. Everyone around them could see it, too.

After that first pack night when she moved in, the rest of the pack watched them closely. _Very _closely.

_Lydia studied the Alpha from her seat in the corner of the room like she would an experiment. Two years. Two years she had known Derek and she'd never seen him like this. The soft look he got in his eyes when he looked at her. The secret smile he let out when he thought no one was watching._

_Like right then. Kira was sat on the couch with Malia, bright smile on her face as she motioned with her hands. Lydia presumed that she was explaining something to the newly human-ed girl because of the confused expression on Malia's face. Despite it, though, Malia still listened to the kitsune because that seemed to be Kira's superpower._

_She was a literal ray of sunshine and she was magnetic to everyone around her. _

_Just like the big, bad Alpha who stared at her from his spot on the other side of the room. He nodded along as the Sheriff and Argent-who had come by with Allison to discuss the impending threat of hunters-debated possible strategies, but every minute or so his eyes would dart over to Kira. _

_Derek's eyes were his most expressive feature, the banshee had noticed. _

"_Derek." The wolf didn't respond. "Derek, are you listening?" The sheriff put his hand on Derek's shoulder._

_That snapped him out of his Kira-induced daze and Derek shook his head. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, yeah sorry. Uh, Wednesday. Next Wednesday should be the best time to train more. I think that we should focus on-oof!"_

_Scott barreled over the back of the couch and knocked Derek to the floor, Stiles and Jackson following immediately and diving on top of their alpha._

_Playful growls came from the floor where the four tousled and Lydia smiled fondly._

"_Liam!" Stiles cried out dramatically as Derek pressed his face into the floor while simultaneously locking Scott in a headlock and trying to fling Jackson off his back. "Liam, we need reinforcements."_

_The young beta smiled and abandoned his homework at the dining table, running over to join them. Everyone else rolled their eyes fondly or shook their heads, used to the antics of their boys. Kira, however, snorted out a laugh and was sent into an uncontrollable giggling fit on the couch._

_Derek, though still fighting off the hoard of his betas, glanced at her from the pile and a small smile graced his lips. A testament to his incredible strength, Derek managed to pin Stiles and Scott before the group bested him and pinned him down. _

_Once they did, Scott yelled, "Puppypile!" _

_Cora, who hadn't even been in the room, sprinted down the stairs and catapulted herself on top of her brother causing Derek to let out a slightly pained groan. She was followed by Laura and Malia in a similar fashion. Lydia picked herself up and sat down daintily on top of the pile. _

_Kira sat on the couch, amused at the scene, but unsure of whether or not she should join. Lydia smiled at her. "C'mon, Kira, even Allison is doing it." And it was true. The young huntress had sat herself on the outskirts of the pile, just on top of Scott's butt which was sticking outwards, his head trapped by Derek's arm._

_Kira got up and flopped down, giggling, not on the pile but up against it. Right next to her, Derek's leg poked out of the pile. _

_A mischievous smile spread across her lips and the young fox rubbed her index finger and thumb together, a trick that her mother had taught her when young. The movement generated energy akin to a shock you felt from rubbing your socks on the floor. _

_Kira jabbed Derek's heel. "Ow! Hey!" Derek's muffled voice called out from under the pile. Kira cackled and jabbed him again. "Not cool, Ki!"_

_After another minute, a collective yelp came from the pack as Derek began throwing people off. "Alright, shitheads, get off." When he was visible again, Derek mussed Cora's hair and smirked. He met Kira's eyes and raised his eyebrows._

_The kitsune smiled sunnily and waved as she sat criss-cross on the floor, looking poised compared to the rest of the pack who were splayed across the floor. Derek picked up a hand and waved back, an amused smirk playing on his lips._

"You care about her, Der." Cora leaned against the doorway of his room as she spoke. "That's not a bad thing."

Derek let out a frustrated sigh. "You of all people should know that's not true."

Cora looked down, pain flaming in her chest at the remark. "I don't think that any of us believe that Kira is like _her_, Derek. She could never do that."

He shook his head. Of course Kira wasn't like that. Derek could never think that. "But she could still get hurt. So many people get hurt around me and I don't want her to suffer because of me."

She was silent for a moment before pushing off from the doorframe. Derek thought she'd just leave, agree with him. But after turning around, she stopped. "You deserve to be happy, D." Then walked down the stairs.

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Kira didn't know what she had done wrong. Things were going great. She was bonding with everyone in the pack; getting to know them better, forming friendships.

But then, last Friday, Derek had just shut down on her. Stopped talking to her unless it was about the hunters.

It hurt. Kira had tried to convince herself it was nothing personal, but she knew that wasn't true. He hadn't gone cold on anyone else, just her and she had no clue why.

Kira sighed and buried her face into her pillow. She didn't know what to do.

A knock sounded on her bedroom door. Kira didn't even pull her face out of the cushions, but groaned out a 'Hmmm' in response. The door opened with a click.

"We're about to start training, honey." Natalie Martin's voice said in a motherly tone. Kira emerged from her hiding place and she shot the woman a small smile. Nodding to let her know she had heard. Natalie simply stepped forward and layed a comforting hand on Kira's leg before leaving the room.

Kira had a good relationship with her parents once. Up until she was twelve years old, Kira had a normal relationship with her mom. Her parents coddled her and indulged in her childish ways, treating her like their child.

That all stopped when she got older. Her mother decided that Kira was of age to start becoming more independent, to grow as a warrior. A fox. Kira never understood why it seemed, one day, that her mom and dad stopped loving her.

Melissa, Natalie, and Noah filled in that void, a little, though. They treated her like one of her own and it was nice.

Kira groaned as she rolled over onto her back to sit up. She changed quickly into a tank top and sports bra before trudging out to meet the rest of the pack in the reserve, katana in hand.

When she arrived, everyone was already assembled, milling around and talking to each other as each training station was set up. Kira walked over to where Scott and Malia were examining a couple of weapons. She set down her blade near them and pulled her hair back away from her face into a ponytail.

While doing her hair, Kira's eyes met Derek's as he stood next to Laura and Argent. Derek looked down almost immediately and Kira couldn't ignore the flash of hurt in the pit of her stomach. What had she done?

The group was still pretty distracted, chatter filled the air punctuated by random noises arising from Stiles or occasional bouts of laughter.

It was by a pure stroke of luck that Kira caught the movement. She had been lost in thought and staring off toward the treeline when a flash of something metallic caused her heart to stop.

She saw where it was pointing and did not hesitate. "Derek!" She cried as a gunshot rang out.


	8. Chapter 8

"_Derek!"_

The alpha looked up only to be taken down to the floor by a small figure. A gunshot sounded and he immediately tried to sit up, but the weight on his chest stopped him.

Her scent hit him before he could see who it was. "Kira?!" Only a whimper answered him. Fully alert now, Derek could see the dark red spot bleeding onto his shirt. But it wasn't his blood. "No, no, no. Oh shit, Kira." Derek pulled himself up, cradling Kira's upper body as he went. He could see the gunshot wound in her upper stomach, blood leaking profusely through her fingers.

Derek pressed his larger hand over hers. The fox cried out is pain at the pressure. She gasped, a low whine emanating from her throat. To everyone's horror, Kira began shrieking, curling in on herself. She screamed in pure agony.

Derek looked down in terror and pulled her closer. "What's going on?!" The fox writhed in his grasp as he tried to soothe her. Kira's eyes were clenched as she arched her back. Her screams quieted only for a moment, her jaw clenched tightly.

A sob escaped her mouth. "Make t'stop…" A scream. "P-please, hur-hurts." Kira sobbed.

Derek looked helpless. The veins on his arms tuned inky black as he tried to pull pain from her. A bitten off groan escaped from his mouth at the pain. If taking a fraction of her pain hurt this much, Derek couldn't imagine what she was going through. "Shh, shhh, I'm sorry." He looked up at the group. "Find them!"

The pack sprang into action, taking to the woods to find the assailants. Derek picked Kira up to take her into the house, but she gripped his bicep tightly. "No! No." She panted, face scrunched in pain. "You can't-can't. H-he-elp them."

"No, no, you need-"

"Derek, go." Tears streamed down her ever paling face, but the look in Kira's eyes was resolute.

Derek looked at her painfully but acquiesced. He set her down near a thicket of bushes, kissing her forehead as she curled in on her side. "Lydia!" The banshee ran over. "Please, don't let anything happen to her." The redhead knelt down next to the agonized kitsune as Derek took off into the forest.

He could hear Kira's cries behind him, but Derek pushed himself to keep going. _Find them. Find the ones who hurt her. _The wolf in him surged forward in anger at the hunters who had caused Kira so much pain. It took over him in a way he had never known before.

A shot was fired and narrowly missed him. Derek's bared his fangs and turned toward the source of the bullet. He caught sight of the hunter who cocked his rifle and took aim at Derek once again. The Alpha wolf growly lowly and lunged at the man, knocking the rifle so that the bullet hit a tree behind him.

He brought his hand back to deliver a killing blow to the terrified man, but thought back to Kira.

_A small frown settled on her face. They were all training in the preserve and Derek was keeping his distance from the kitsune. He could, however, hear her speaking lowly to Jackson. _

"_I get it, we're trying to survive here. But...do we have to be like them? I don't think I could kill unless I absolutely had to."_

Derek grabbed the hunter by the shoulders and headbutted him, knocking him unconscious. He whirled around at the sound of footsteps.

Three more hunters emerged from the foliage. Derek chuffed animalistically and rounded, kicking off a tree and propelling himself toward one hunter. His foot made contact with the hunter's chest and sent him backwards into a tree.

Derek landed in a crouch and swept his foot around, taking out a second hunter at the ankles. A knife slashed at his back and Derek growled at the sting. He turned quickly, swiping up a branch as he got up and driving it through the hunter's left thigh.

The man screamed in pain. Derek turned on his heel and sprinted into the forest. He threw his head back and let out a howl. A war cry. A chorus of howls rose up from the forest surrounding him in response.

Derek burst into a clearing, finding Liam engaged in a battle with two hunters. He fought beside his young beta, quickly taking out the two.

"_Derek!" _Came Laura's voice from the east end of the forest. "_They're pulling back. You need to get back to Kira, fast."_

Without a second thought, Derek booked it to the big house. He was the first into the clearing, the others emerging from the trees after him. He didn't slow down until he was approaching the thicket of bushes where he had left Kira.

He fell to his knees next to Lydia who was sitting next to Kira, putting pressure on the wound and gazing down at her worriedly.

Derek's heart dropped to his stomach. Kira moaned as she curled in on herself. The kitsune was sweating profusely and her skin was deathly white.

"It's gotten so much worse, she's not responding to anything." Lydia said quietly.

Derek leaned down and stroked the hair out of her face. Kira's eyes were lidded and moved sluggishly. "Ki, Kira it's Derek." The kitsune shivered and whimpered.

Lydia swallowed. "Derek, she's showing signs of total organ failure. We need to get help."

By now, the rest of the pack had gathered around them. Scott looked worried. "Deaton is out of town and I don't know what my mom could do even if we got her here."

Lydia shook her head. "There's not enough time."

"Get her inside." It was Peter. "We have to start by burning it out."

"We don't even know what it is." Laura said.

Peter looked at Kira. "I think I do." Derek looked at him with disguised hope in his green eyes. "Years ago, when your grandfather was still Alpha, when I was Liam's age, I was shot by a rogue band of hunters. It felt like there was fire in my veins and like I was being stabbed from the inside. Wolfsbane and mistletoe chemically bound together. We have to go fast."

Derek needed no more information, slipping his arms under her shoulders and knees gently. Once he had her in his arms, he ran into the house. Scott and Jackson shoved everything off the dining room table while Lydia and Argent ran off to find mistletoe and wolfsbane.

The Alpha gingerly laid Kira on the table and sliced open her shirt. She cried out at the movement. "Shh, shh, I'm sorry Ki, I'm so sorry." Derek gripped her hand and pressed a kiss to it. He clenched his eyes shut to suppress the tears building in his eyes.

He straightened but didn't look away from the writhing girl on the table. "Scott, Cora, hold her down." Scott and Cora immediately stepped forward, compelled by the authority lacing their alpha's tone. "Take whatever pain you can, any of you."

Jackson, Peter, Laura, and Liam eached placed a hand on one of her legs. They all nodded at him. Derek breathed in deeply and flicked out his claws. "I'm sorry." He said before pushing his claws into the wound. Kira's back arched and she screamed in agony. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry baby." The pet name slipped out of his mouth, but he didn't care at the moment. With a sickening squelch, he retracted his claws holding the bloody bullet.

All the wolves' faces were screwed up in pain as they leached it from her body. Derek quickly grabbed the mixture of mistletoe and wolfsbane and lit it on fire. With a moment's hesitation, he pushed it into the wound.

The pain was too much for her to bear. She didn't even scream, but kicked outwards, catching Scott in the face. He flinched as his nose began to bleed but did not release his hold on her.

When Derek pulled his hand away, the wound had yet to heal. It was still gushing blood...it even looked worse than it had before. Derek looked at Peter, bewildered. "It's not working." Peter looked just as shocked as his nephew.

"I...I don't know. The poison must have compromised her healing abilities. Her body isn't working the way it's supposed to." He replied. Derek's mind was racing. He gripped the table to the point of pain. Peter's eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. "Derek. _Osculum autem mate._"

Derek looked up. "You think… me and Kira?"

His uncle simply nodded.

Derek looked at the girl. There was only one way to find out.

The rest of the pack looked on bewildered as Derek leaned down and placed a hand on Kira's abdomen gently, before licking a stripe over her bullet wound. The kitsune whimpered at the feeling. Her body slackened in the grips of the wolves.

Derek spit out the blood in his mouth and looked down at the wound. Before all their eyes, it began to shrink. He closed his eyes and licked her wound once again, sealing it as he passed over.

Kira had quieted and breathed shallowly on the table, turning on her side toward Derek, who grabbed her hand and held it tightly, pressing his forehead to hers.

Peter gazed down at the pair, remarking quietly. "_Osculum autem mate-_'Kiss of a mate'."


	9. Chapter 9

The pack waited in silence. All were gathered in the living room, including the three parents who had not been present at the time of the battle.

Behind the closed door of his bedroom, Derek sat on the bed next to Kira's unconscious form. His _mate's _unconscious form.

Derek's mind still reeled from the thought. From the moment he'd met her, he _had _felt drawn to her. But mates? He could never have imagined it.

His parents had been mates. Seth and Talia Hale. The story of how they met was the Hale children's bedtime story every night.

One full moon, Talia had lost control. Her wolf took over, causing her to shift completely. She ran from Colorado to California before waking up in front of a beautiful manor.

At this point in the story Talia would smile and whisper. "_I looked up at the house and the door opened very slowly. A boy stepped out and he was the most handsome young man I had ever seen. He took off his jacket and held it out to me. _

"'_You should come inside. It's warmer.' He said._

"_That was your daddy, mijos."_

_Osculum autem mate-_ "Kiss of a mate" was an old legend that a mate's kiss or saliva would heal their partner. Derek had proved that Kira was his.

The sound of covers ruffling next to him broke Derek out of his thoughts.

"Kira?" He pushed her hair out of her face. Kira twisted under the covers and moaned. "Hey, it's alright. C'mon, open your eyes."

Kira breathed in sharply as her eyes shot open. "Derek?" She asked groggily. "What's going on?"

He breathed out a relieved sigh. "You're okay now, is what's going on."

"What happened after...I can't remember anything after I was shot. Just this blinding pain."

"Yeah, there's something you need to know…" Derek launched into the story of what had happened the day prior. Kira gripped his hand the whole time. Derek couldn't look at her. He felt so guilty that he hadn't helped her first. That she had to suffer for so long.

When he had finished his story, it was silent.

Kira was in shock. Every child of the supernatural world had heard tales about _sōrumeito-_soulmates-at some point in their childhood. Kira's father had always told her the stories, never her mother.

When she was young she would obsess about it. Fantasizing what it'd be like to finally meet her soulmate. What he would be like, how handsome he'd be. But her mother crushed that when she started training her.

"_There's no such thing, _Musume(daughter), _get your head out of the clouds and focus on your future-your real future."_

And now, he was standing here in front of her and she didn't know what to do. It felt right, really it did, but Derek was nothing like she'd imagined when she was younger. Then again, an eleven-year-old's hopes for her true love weren't necessarily the best standards to live by. When she was in sixth grade, Kira had hoped that Maxwell Collinger was her _sōrumeito. _She thought he was so dreamy because he was an eighth grader and didn't need braces.

Clearly the universe's standards were higher than hers and, to be honest, she was pretty grateful. Her soulmate was _hot. _

Kira cleared her throat. "So you're like...we're like...oh. Well...oh."

"Mmhmm."

Kira couldn't help it. A giggle bubbled out of her mouth and snowballed into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Derek was staring at her in alarm, likely unsure if she was laughing at him or if she was just going a little nuts.

The petite kitsune gripped his arm and leaned her forehead against his bicep as she laughed. "I'm sorry. Sorry." She was still laughing. "It's just...only I would find my soulmate like this."

Derek smiled at her, unable to resist her personality. "Yeah, sorry about that." His lip twitched down and his eyes lost their mirth. "You deserve someone better."

Kira tilted her head, a small frown on her lips. "Why would you say that?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't really think that it's every girl's dream to be eternally attached to a guy who is single-handedly responsible for the death of almost his entire family." He remarked bitterly. Derek swallowed roughly, surprised by his own candor. The memory still sat heavy on his chest as he thought about all of the people who he would never see again, who his sisters would never see again. Because of him.

Derek's chest ached as he longed to hear his mother's soothing voice once again, to see his father's eyes shining with pride, to hug his grandparents once more. And while it was the Argents who had lit the fire, who had watched on gleefully as his family was burned to the ground, it was _him _that had let Kate into their lives in the first place.

Kira's shocked expression was expected, but what she did next was not. He expected her to look upon him with contempt, to try to get him to leave. She should've been disgusted with him but, instead, she asked him a question. "What happened?"

Shocked by her inquiry, Derek found himself answering honestly. "I was young and stupid and idealistic." Her imploring look pushed him forward. He sighed, pulling the memory to the forefront of his mind - the exact opposite of what he had been doing for the past nine years.

How was he even supposed to tell her what happened? "_I'm sorry to tell you this, but the guy you just found out is your soulmate also dated a psychotic serial killer who burned his house down."? _But, oh, it gets even better. "_And I sort of knew that her family hated mine and had been trying to kill us for centuries."_

Yeah, nope. Instead, he tried a different approach. "Did you know that I was captain of the basketball team?" He questioned.

Kira quirked a brow at the change of direction, but decided to play along. "Really? I had you pegged for more of a baseball type of guy." She teased.

"Well, that too." Derek admitted, chuckling as he dodged a pillow hurled in his direction. "But, yeah, when I was 17, I was the captain and the team's star player. Obviously the enhanced reflexes and stamina probably factored in, but I was pretty good if I do say so myself." He smirked.

"We made it to State Championship and I was ecstatic, knew we could win. And I was right. That year, we took the win and I thought things couldn't get any better." Kira studied the wistful look on his face. "Apparently I was wrong. At the after party I met this girl, Kate. She was tall and blonde and beautiful, a couple years older. I couldn't believe how lucky I was that this girl liked me." Derek's face darkened as he continued, however. "After about a month, she told me who she was. That she was an Argent. I knew who they were and that I shouldn't have trusted her, but every time I started to have doubts, she'd stick he hand down my pants and _convince _me otherwise."

Derek lowered his head shamefully at the admission and Kira's chest ached at the broken expression on his face. "Couple months later and my house was burned to the ground and almost all of my family was dead."

He refused to look up. Derek couldn't bear to see the moment she rejected him, told him to get lost, so her next words caught him off-guard. "I'm so sorry, Derek."

He looked up in alarm. "Sorry? Why would you be sorry?"

"I'm sorry she used you." Kira's eyes were filled with pain. Not _because _of him, but _for _him. "I'm sorry that you lost people." Then, her normally so-soft eyes hardened and he feared that it was directed at him. "But, Derek, it was not your fault."

_How was it not my fault? _"How, Kira? I let her into our lives, I knew who she was and I ignored it." His pained voice shattered her heart and Kira hurt for this man who had been carrying such a heavy burden for nearly a decade.

"No, you chose to see the best in someone and she took advantage of that. Don't you dare take any of the blame. You did nothing wrong." The kitsune's words were fierce and final, shocking him into silence. "_She _is at fault. Kate and her family. Absolutely none of this is on you, Derek Hale, tell me you understand."

Seeing his hesitancy to accept her statement, Kira pushed herself up off the bed. She groaned at the ache in her body caused by the movement. Derek may have healed the wound, but it had still wreaked havoc on her body prior to it. Seeing her discomfort, Derek went to stop her from moving.

"Kira, don't-"

With a final grunt, she found herself in a kneeling position in front of Derek. Kira placed both hands on the sides of his face and forced him to look her in the eye. "Tell me you understand." She enunciated each word purposefully. Derek was awed by the fierceness with which Kira protected him. From _himself, _nonetheless.

"Okay." He conceded.


End file.
